Chickens are HERE!

So…this happened, yesterday!

How we transported our hens.  5 to a box!

We are in our BLISS.  

The kids are beside themselves.  Always going out to the coop to see the hens.  They like them even more than they like the chicks.  

Kids learning a bit about chickens.

I am tired!  So tired and bone sore.  I knew that there would be more work...and I love it.  Just taking a moment to appreciate that this work is work!  So much worth it!

I woke up so many times last night thinking about the hens.  Over the years the wooden floor of the coop has rotted away in spots.  I am so nervous that skunks or coyote or a fox is going to dig under the coop and get the chickens!

So I bought a solar powered electric net fence.  I got it set up but I was too tired last night to try to make sense of the instructions.  

Finally, at 5:30, I got out of bed and checked on them.  All was well, thank goodness.

Hopefully, I can get the fence powered before night fall and teach the kids how to turn it off and on again.  Don’t want my littles to feel the force of the electric fence by accident.  

I am sure they will each try it out.

I hope I am around to see it.  

13 here...3 more came before we had lunch.

In 24 hours, our 20 hens, have laid for us 16 eggs!  They also laid one for themselves as evidenced by the empty shell fragments.  The waterer was leaking.  5 gallons slowly spilled out onto the coop floor.  I was frustrated.  The chickens loved it.  Yummy mud.  They make me laugh.

And this is now my life!

I can’t believe it!  God is so good!  

Life is not perfect.  I would love my husband to be home.  I would love some more sun.  I would love the finances to be able to buy a second hand riding mower and a rototiller without freaking out inside.  

But life is so much sweeter because of the heartache.  

We lost a chick, last night.  We don’t know why.  It is what happened.  Nothing that we could have done to make it not die.  It is part of life.

We mourn and we change and we grow.

...fried in bacon!

The eggs were so very tasty!!  I mean, I have never had such fresh eggs!  From the chicken to the table in less than 4 hours.  I hoped they would be noticeably yummier, but I was blown away!  

We ate them all!

They were filling!  

I also hung clothes on the line, today.  Then the clouds blew in and it started to sprinkle.  So I took my clothes down and then...it stopped raining.  

Whatever.

Life is still good.